6 takeaways from Google’s antitrust settlement with US regulators

Google Inc. has settled an U.S. antitrust probe that largely leaves its search practices alone. In a major win for Google, the Federal Trade Commission unanimously concluded that there is not enough evidence to support complaints from rivals that the company shows unfair bias in its search results toward its own products.

Below are six of the biggest takeaways from the decision announced Thursday:

— Google promised to license hundreds of important mobile device patents to rivals that make gadgets such as smartphones, tablets and gaming devices, on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms,” the FTC said. Google got the patents as part of its $ 12.4 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility last year. The patents cover wireless connectivity and other Internet technologies.

— Upon receiving a request to do so, the online search leader pledged to stop using snippets of content from other websites, such as the reviews site Yelp Inc., in its search results. It had already scaled back this practice before the FTC settlement after a complaint from Yelp that triggered the FTC probe. Under the agreement, specialty websites such as those on shopping and travel can request that Google stop including such snippets in the search results, while still providing links to those websites.

— Google pledged to adjust its online advertising system so marketing campaigns can be more easily managed on rival networks. Some FTC officials had worried that Google’s existing service terms with advertisers make that difficult.

— The FTC’s unanimous conclusion that Google does not practice unfair “search bias” to promote its own properties against competitors is a major victory for the online search leader. It means it won’t have to change its search formula, considered to be the company’s crown jewel.

— Not everyone was happy with the results. FairSearch, a group whose members include rival Microsoft Corp., said the FTC’s “inaction on the core question of search bias will only embolden Google to act more aggressively to misuse its monopoly power to harm other innovators.”

— Next up, European regulators are expected to wrap up a similar investigation of Google’s business practices in the coming weeks.

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Connie Britton Emmys 2011 Flashback

Connie Britton had some fun with ET, who complimented her on her glowing appearance, and absolutely shimmering... clavicle?

"Yes, my clavicle always shimmers, and I wake up looking like this."

For those who haven't brushed up on human anatomy, the clavicle is the same thing as the collarbone. And Britton was absolutely rocking it in her sleeveless dress.

See Also: Stars React To Their Golden Globe Nominations

The actress and singer was nominated for her acclaimed role as Tami Taylor on the concluded NBC series Friday Night Lights, and also discussed her then upcoming miniseries, American Horror Story: Asylum.

"I don't sing [on the show], I do a lot of screaming. We have replaced singing for screaming on American Horror Story."

Her role on that mini-series would earn Britton another Emmy nomination the following year. Shamefully, neither of those nods resulted in wins for one of our favorite TV actresses.

See Also: Can Connie Britton Sing? Watch!

Even so, Britton is back to singing on the new ABC series Nashville, and that leading role has even earned her a Golden Globe nomination. You can find out if she wins when the Globes air on NBC, January 13.

To see Britton's entire playful red carpet interview, see the video above.

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City audit shows faulty receipts filed by education officials to Bronx pizzeria

Their story stretched more than the mozzarella.

Education bureaucrats submitted apparently faulty receipts to justify hundreds of dollars of expenses at a Bronx pizzeria and other food purchases made by public schools, an audit found.

City Comptroller John Liu asked city investigators to look into the potentially fraudulent proof submitted after the fact for more than $500 in pizza and Pepsi purchases from Arturro’s Pizzeria in Marble Hill.

READ THE FULL AUDIT HERE

Officials in his agency said it wasn’t clear that the receipts were completely fabricated — only that they appeared to be created after the fact to cover-up lousy record-keeping by Ellis Prep Academy and its Department of Education managers.

The allegedly bogus bills were among a host of questionable credit-card purchases uncovered in an audit of five schools and their oversight office.

The review found that a whopping 64 percent of the $133,173 purchases examined were not documented or bid out properly — or weren’t justifiable expenses — including:

• $775 for five Kindles from Amazon.com

• $194 purchase from Costco.com labeled both as a refrigerator and as movie tickets

• $679 from Target.com for sofa beds.

• $1,292 for two dinner events at Calle Ocho Restaurant in The Bronx

The audit looked at only a small sample of the $17.2 million in credit card purchases by schools in fiscal 2011, and was the latest in a string of investigations that found poor oversight by the DOE.

“Greater care and discretion in the use of [credit]-cards is in order before outright waste and abuse ensues,” said Liu.

His office made 13 recommendations for how the DOE can boost its oversight of credit card purchases, 10 of which the agency backed.

A spokeswoman for the schools investigation office did not respond to an email and phone call asking whether it had opened a probe regarding the pizza pie receipts.

A DOE spokeswoman said the agency was told that a probe had already been closed with no positive findings.

“We implemented most of the Comptroller’s recommendations prior to the audit,” she said.

Additional reporting by Gillian Kleiman

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New York real estate investor expands Lincoln Road presence

A New York real estate investment fund continued to expand its presence on Lincoln Road last month, purchasing three storefronts on the prime retail street.

Thor Equities said Thursday that it closed last month on the purchase of 663, 665, and 667 Lincoln Road. The company declined to reveal the purchase price for the 5,000 square feet of retail space. Tenants include Pizza Rustica, So Good Collections and 16 Handles (665).

Thor sees opportunity to attract fashion retailers looking to enter the market. Lincoln has recently seen an influx of international retailers like H&M, Forever 21 and Lacoste.

Joe Sitt, chairman and chief executive of Thor Equities, was one of the first institutional investors to see Lincoln Road’s potential when he started buying property more than five years ago. At the time Sitt says other institutional investors “laughed” because they thought the market was too much of a party town. Sitt has been outbid by some of those same investors on other recent attempts to purchase property on Lincoln.

“Lincoln Road is the hottest retail street in all of Miami and is among the busiest corridors in the world,” Sitt said.

The new acquisitions give Thor Equities a total of 16,000 square feet of retail space in Miami Beach.

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Miami Police sergeant faces drug-trafficking trial in secretive federal case

The U.S. government’s sensitive case against a Miami police sergeant charged with planting cocaine on a suspect and stealing drugs and money from dealers will begin Thursday with jury selection, and possibly opening statements.

Although federal criminal cases routinely lack transparency before trial, the prosecution of Raul Iglesias has been particularly secretive because police officers — including several Miami undercover detectives who once worked in his street unit — are expected to testify against the veteran cop.

Iglesias, 40, was indicted in July on nine counts, including violating suspects’ civil rights, conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute, obstruction of justice and making false statements. Iglesias, who was relived of duty with pay in 2010, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Soon after Iglesias was indicted in July, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ricardo Del Toro sought a court protective order to restrict disclosure of witness names, grand jury testimony, FBI statements and undercover recordings. Iglesias’ defense attorney, Rick Diaz, agreed to the terms.

Del Toro’s request, approved by U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga, aimed “to protect the sensitive information in the discovery materials and to prevent intimidation of or tampering with the witnesses.” Under the terms, Iglesias’ attorney was required to hold all evidence in “strict confidence,” including requiring his witnesses to sign the protective order.

But the secrecy shrouding the sergeant’s drug-trafficking case will slowly fade at trial, when both sides begin questioning police detectives who initially snitched about their boss’s alleged misconduct to the Miami Police Department’s internal affairs section, which called the FBI.

Iglesias’ defense attorney, Diaz, plans to put on a defense accusing undercover detectives and FBI agents of setting up Iglesias by planting incriminating evidence on him in a sting.

Diaz, who declined to comment on the eve of trial, said after his client’s indictment that they were “looking forward to trying this case in front of a jury.”

Iglesias, who has been with the Miami Police Department for 18 years, ran the Central District’s Crime Suppression unit, which targeted drug traffickers.

Iglesias’ indictment was not unexpected. One of his former detectives, Roberto Asanza, was arrested, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities in building the case against Iglesias.

Asanza was busted in June 2011. A year earlier, FBI agents had detained him, seizing 10 bags of cocaine and two bags of marijuana stolen from a window-tinting shop in Allapattah.

According to court documents, Asanza told agents that he and Iglesias used some of the stolen cocaine to pay off a confidential informant who had tipped them off to the drugs at the tint shop.

“Asanza admitted that he knew it was wrong to give drugs to the [informant], but that he was trying to build a rapport with the’’ informant, stated the criminal complaint for his arrest.

Asanza, an ex-Marine who was initially a reluctant witness against his boss, pleaded guilty last February to a minor drug charge of possessing a controlled substance and received one year of probation, court records show. He also gave up his law-enforcement certification.

The indictment cited at least four dates when Iglesias allegedly stole or planted drugs, or lied to investigators.

On Jan. 27, 2010, Iglesias ordered two of his officers to search a man identified in court documents only as “R.H.” When no drugs were found, Iglesias allegedly asked his officers for some “throw-down dope” to plant on the man.

A third officer, identified only as “R.M.,” gave him the drugs and the man was arrested, according to the indictment.

On April 8, 2010, Iglesias stole “money and property” from someone identified only as “C.R.,” the indictment alleges.

Then on May 5, 2010, he is alleged to have stolen marijuana and cocaine from the Allapattah tint shop. Twenty days later, the indictment alleges, Iglesias lied to investigators when he said he did not know how much money was in a box seized that day as well.

Iglesias also “represented that he did not steal any drugs or money from arrest subjects when in truth and fact ... the defendant did steal drugs and money from arrest subjects,” the indictment said.

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HTC rumored to debut flagship ‘M7′ smartphone at CES

HTC (2498) will reportedly unveil a new flagship smartphone code-named “M7″ at the Consumer Electronics Show next week. The rumor comes to us from XDA-Developers forum member “Football,” who reported accurate information about unreleased HTC devices in the past. The phone is believed to the be the successor to the One X and could be equipped with a 4.7-inch full HD 1920 x 1080-pixel display, a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, a 13-megapixel rear camera, LTE and HSPA+ connectivity, Beats Audio, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory and a 2,300 mAh battery. The M7 is also said to be HTC’s first smartphone to utilize on-screen navigation keys in place of traditional hardware buttons. 

[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]

The problem for HTC in the past has been the company’s ability to market its high-end devices to consumers. Despite class-leading features and hardware, HTC’s smartphone sales have stalled in the past year and the company has continued to lose market share. It will be interesting to see if it can turn things around in 2013.

[More from BGR: Microsoft lashes out at Google’s decision to spurn Windows Phone]

The Consumer Electronics Show is scheduled to take place from January 8th to January 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Julianne Hough Reveals Horrific Childhood Abuse

Though Julianne Hough is known for her bubbly personality, it turns out not everything in her life has been so charmed.

Julianne covers Cosmopolitan's February issue, where she reveals she suffered mental and physical abuse while living in London as a young girl in order to pursue her dancing career. She attended the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Arts on a five-year scholarship, along with her brother Derek.

Video: See Hough & Duhamel's Hot Romance in 'Safe Haven'

"While I was in London, I was abused, mentally, physically, everything," she reveals, and it didn't stop there -- she says it got worse when she "started hitting puberty, when I started becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl."

Though Julianne declines to go into the specific details, she does say that she was forced to push out an overly sexual image at a very young age.

"I was 10 years old looking like I was 28, being a very sensual dancer. I was a tormented little kid who had to put on this sexy facade because that was my job and my life. But my heart was the same, and I was this innocent little girl. I wanted so much love," she says. "I was told if I ever went back to the United States, three things were going to happen. One: I was going to amount to nothing. Two: I was going to work at Whataburger. And three: I was going to end up a slut. So, it was like, I can't go back. I have to be this person."

Related: Julianne Hough -- I'm 20 Pounds Heavier Since Dating Seacrest

Julianne of course did return to the United States, where she became a star thanks to her winning performances on Dancing with the Stars.

On a lighter note, Julianne also dishes to the magazine about her relationship with Ryan Seacrest.

"We love what we do. We take pride in giving it our all, but then when we're alone, we really focus in on going to dinners and being extra-romantic and affectionate and just being there for each other," she says.

And clearly, the two know how to keep the sparks alive -- Julianne recalls when the two were stranded and alone during Superstorm Sandy in New York, and took advantage of the rare time the two workaholics couldn't work.

"It was great," says Hough, smiling. "We put on some candles, had some sexy time....Ha!"

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Cop shoots man near Brooklyn Technical High School after he lunged at him with scissors

Police shot and seriously wounded a 40-year-old man who charged at him with scissors in a building across the street from Brooklyn Technical HS in Fort Greene, according to authorities and sources.

The gunfire broke out just before 3:22 p.m. inside the apartment building 48 Fort Greene Place, between Lafayette and DeKalb avenues, authorities said.

Law-enforcement sources said the cop, who was alone, had been on his way to traffic court when a frantic person approached him and asked for help, saying there was a man wielding a sharp object.

The cop then went to 48 Fort Greene Place, where he confronted that hulking, 260-pound man, identified as Keary Green, who was wielding a pair of scissors, sources said.

When Green allegedly unged at the cop, the officer fired a single round, hitting the man in the stomach, the source said.

Green was rushed to nearby Kings County Hospital.

"All I heard was a gunshot," said Thomas McCormick, who lives several doors away from 48 Fort Greene Place. "I looked out the window, and the whole block was locked down. They dragged someone into an ambulance, and they took off down the block."

Residents of the block described Green as violent, and said his girlfriend lived in the building where he was shot.

"He was crazy! She was afraid of him," said a long-time resident of the block about Green and his girlfriend.. "He looked crazy . . . like he shouldn't be on the streets.

"She always looked scared," said the resident about Green's girlfriend.

"He was physically, mentally, verbally abusive. She know him from living on Long Island," the resident said. "I think they went to high school together. She knew him for some time . . . I think he tried to reel her back or something. He was just an abusive guy. He just looked crazy!"

Students from Brooklyn Technical were being dismissed from the school at the exit a block away from the shooting scene.

The officer involved in the shooting was transported to Methodist Hospital, but it is not known if that officer was injured in the incident.

Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Amy Stretten, Amber Sutherland and C.J. Sutherland

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Portion of Macy’s Flagler Street property sold

In a deal that could have implications for the future of Downtown Miami’s anchor retail tenant, a New York real estate investment firm paid $15.5 million to acquire about 60 percent of the property that now houses Macy’s Flagler Street store.

The acquisition by Aetna Realty Group includes the 48,000-square-feet of land that was first leased to R.W. Burdine back in 1917 for the Burdines store. The property was currently owned by 23 heirs of Richard and Harriet Ashby, who signed the initial 99-year lease with Burdine.

The sale was motivated by the impending expiration of that lease in 2016, said Lewis R. Cohen, a shareholder at GrayRobinson, who represented the Ashby family in the transaction that closed on New Year’s Eve.

Over the years, Macy’s has grown the downtown store well beyond the Ashby portion. Aetna has also made a commitment to purchase the remaining portion of the building that is currently owned by Macys, Cohen said. But that deal hasn’t closed yet.

“That deal is a sure thing,” Cohen said. “They could not have closed with us without having an agreement with Macy’s completely nailed down.”

Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski said this transaction doesn’t impact Macy’s lease and he declined to comment on any other pending transaction regarding the property the retailer owns in Downtown Miami.

“It’s business as usual,” said Sluzewski, who would not discuss Macy’s long-term plans for Downtown Miami beyond the expiration of its lease.

But Cohen said Macy’s is in the process of finalizing a short-term deal with the new owners.

“They intend to stay for at least the foreseeable future,” Cohen said. “For a minimum of five years they’ll be there and possibly longer.”

Macy’s long-term future on Flagler Street has been in doubt since 2007, when then Macy’s Florida chairman took city leaders to task for the deplorable conditions downtown and threatened that the retailer might leave.

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Possible future Israeli ambassador holds two countries in his heart

In Israel, he’s already known as “Bibi’s Brain:’’ Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s master strategist.

But Ron Dermer, 42-year-old Miami Beach native, now Israeli citizen — the son of one Miami Beach mayor and brother of another — could soon add an official title to his resume: Mr. Ambassador.

Dermer is reportedly Netanyahu’s choice for Israeli ambassador to the United States to replace Michael Oren, who plans to step down in the spring after four years.

A political conservative with close ties to powerful American Republicans, Dermer would become Israel’s top diplomat in the United States, a position requiring the ability to represent his country’s interests across U.S. party lines.

Netanyahu’s office hasn’t commented on the reports. A spokesman for the Israeli consulate in Miami could not confirm the possible appointment, nor could Dermer’s older brother, former Mayor David Dermer, who called any speculation “premature.’’ A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the rumor was “baseless.’’ In any case, the Netanyahu government would have to survive a Parliamentary election later this month.

An Oxford-educated scholar-athlete who holds degrees in finance and management from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School, and who quarterbacked Israel’s flag football World Cup team three times, Dermer is known as smart, polished, and so competitive that “he wouldn’t let a 3-year-old beat him at Ping-Pong,” friend Tom Rose, former Jerusalem Post publisher, once said in an interview.

Dermer “cannot abide anybody being better at him than anything, particularly physically,” Rose said.

The mere speculation that Dermer might be named seemed to thrill South Florida politicians from both parties.

“It’s wonderful — one of our own being Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.,” said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who knows Dermer. “It is just terrific. He is American as apple pie yet Israeli at heart as well. It is a good fit. He is very much a proud Miami Beach guy — very proud of his hometown.”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, said she met Dermer as part of a Congressional delegation to Israel in 2010. Dermer was the staff person who sat next to Netanyahu as they discussed the peace process, she said.

“It was just neat to see someone reach the heights he has — he hails from South Florida and comes from a political family here,” she said. “It made the connection and conversations with the prime minister really just that much more warm and intimate.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said that the job Dermer holds now — working behind the scenes and with the White House — is very different from being ambassador to the United States, which would require him to directly address Americans in speeches and through the media.

“Ambassador to the U.S. is the most high-profile diplomatic position in Israel,” Klein said. “It requires a tremendous amount of savvy and style that Americans can relate to.”

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